UPDATE 1-US

Freezes assets of three men linked to Taliban, militants

October 17, 2012|Reuters

(Adds details on the three individuals)

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said onWednesday it had frozen the assets of three Pakistani-basedindividuals suspected of backing the Taliban and other militantorganizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, including one manlinked to a failed attack in New York.

Treasury said it froze all U.S. assets and prohibited anyU.S. individuals from doing business with Maulawi Adam KhanAchekzai, Aamir Ali Chaudhry and Qari Ayyub Bashir.

Adam and Chaudhry were involved in the production of bombsfor the Taliban and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), thePakistan Taliban, Treasury said in a statement. Bashir coordinated financial support for the Islamic Movement ofUzbekistan (IMU) in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it said.

"As these designations demonstrate, we will continue to workto dismantle the terrorist support networks operating inAfghanistan and Pakistan, paying special attention to thoseinvolved in the manufacture of IEDs (improvised explosivedevices)," said David Cohen, U.S. undersecretary for terrorismand financial intelligence.

Treasury said Chaudhry was an electronics and explosivesexpert with the TTP who was also suspected of providing adviceon what type of fertilizer to use in the failed May 2010 attemptto explode a bomb in New York's Time Square.

Adam was a key figure for the Taliban, responsible for theproduction of improvised explosives and suicide vests, who hadtrained around 150 other bomb makers to support the Islamicgroup's attacks, it said.

Bashir, whom Treasury named as head of finance for the IMU,was suspected of marshalling funds from sources in Turkey andEurope to finance IMU attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, aswell as recruiting fighters at his school in Pakistan.